Garden Clubs honored by city officials
BY BETTY ARCHER ALLEN Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Betty Archer Allen/Gulf Breeze News Driftwood Garden Club members attended the Arbor Day ceremony.

The City of Gulf Breeze, through Mayor Lane Gilchrist, City Manager Edwin "Buzz" Eddy and Director of Parks and Recreation Ron Pully worked diligently to provide the leadership necessary to replace lost trees and foliage in the area. In this effort many local garden clubs have been of great assistance.

This year The Driftwood Garden Club dedicated a tree to the Gulf Breeze High school ROTC and a picnic bench in memory of Betty Jason at the Gulf Breeze Multi-Purpose Field, west of the library, for Arbor Day on Jan. 17 at 10 a.m. A group of club members and representatives from the city attended the event. The program began with the Presentation of Colors and ended with the retirement of colors by Gulf Breeze High school ROTC Cadets, A.J. Cuff, Bruce Cooke, Brad Costello, Eric Gallup, and Drake Robert led by Master Sergeant Kenneth R. Armitage.

The invocation was given Reverend Andrew LeBlanc, head of the Music Department at Gulf Breeze Methodist Church. The welcome was given by Anne Hunt, Driftwood Arbor Day Chairperson. Pat Tunison gave a brief review of the beginning of Arbor Day.

She said, "Arbor Day is an opportunity not only to plant trees but to take stock of and inspect the trees we have planted already. The first Arbor Day took place April 10, 1872 in Nebraska. Julius Sterling Morton is given credit for working to improve the landscape and economy of Nebraska. He proposed a special day dedicated to tree planting and increasing the awareness of the importance of trees. In 1970 President Nixon proclaimed a National Arbor Day. It is celebrated in all 50 states although not on the same day. Florida celebrates Arbor Day on the third Friday in January. The state tree is the Cabbage Palmetto also known as the cabbage palm."

The program continued with spokesmen from the City of Gulf Breeze, Lane Gilchrist, Edwin "Buz" Eddy and Ron Pulley. The speakers related the importance of replacing the trees and foliage since Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis. and the importance that garden clubs play in that replacement. They reviewed the measures that the city has taken to replace trees. Through two grants administered by the Florida Division of Forestry totaling $112,316.00, the Department of Parks and Recreation has placed 2,659 new trees in Gulf Breeze in the last 18 months. Two thousand and three hundreds forty nine (2,349) 7.5 gallon trees were given to Gulf Breeze Residents in four tree give-a-way events. The types of trees included crepe myrtles, bald cypress, red bud, red maple and live oak. The trees remaining were planted by the Parks and Recreation Department of the city: 23 crepe myrtles were planted within the medians of Highway 98; fifty ligustrums, were placed at Williamsburg and Wayside Park; 15 palms, 10 red maples and 10 live oaks were placed at the city right of way between the Plantation Hill subdivision and the Andrews Institute; 40 hollies, 10 red maples and 10 live oaks were placed at the new football stadium; and 25 palms were planted on Shoreline South. The new Sea Shell Shopping Center was planned as much as possible to conserve the existing trees and Mayor Gilchrist said that, "Two hundred and fifty seven more trees will be planted at the center. These include wax myrtle, crepe myrtle, live oak, magnolias, slash pine, willow oak, Mexican fan palm and tree ligustrum." The city has been awarded the Division of Forestry's Stewardship Forest designation in recognition of the conservation, education and habitat management efforts.

Following the speakers Millie Dehn, president of the Driftwood Garden Club, dedicated a Bradford pear tree to the Gulf Breeze High School ROTC. SMSgt Ken Armitage, who teaches the AFJROTC curriculum at Gulf Breeze High School, thanked the group for the honor. Armitage is a retired Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) with more than 26 and half years of service. He has Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland and a Master of Science Degree in Counseling and Human Development from Troy University.

Dehn then dedicated the park bench to Betty Jason, who was a former member and one-time president of the Driftwood Garden Club. Sally Perkinson, Betty Jason's daughter, accepted the honor to her mother.

Perkinson is a registered nurse who works as a school nurse with the Escambia County Health Department. Perkinson graduated from the Pensacola Junior College in 1980. While raising her children she worked part-time at Sacred Heart Hospital. In 2001, she began her work full-time with the Health department as a nurse in the Title I pre-K program.

The City of Gulf Breeze officials with the help of citizens and the local Gardens Clubs are rapidly replacing the lost canopy of the area as well as beautifying the city in other ways. New developments in the area focus on preserving the trees already in place and the addition of new ones.